How Parents Can Advocate for Better School Curriculums

The Reading Crisis and Why This Is Happening?

We know how to teach up to 95% of students how to read, yet only about 35% of our students are considered proficient readers. When it comes to learning to read, the research is very clear about what types of programs and strategies to use.

Unfortunately, many districts are using curricula and teaching philosophies that do not appropriately serve the children that we know are most likely to struggle. There's a lot of information that could be shared here, but the focus of this blog is going to be on actionable steps that you can take as a parent to help begin to influence change within your school district.

1. Get Informed

Learn about the science of reading and the systemic issues that are occurring within our schools. You can do this by reading our blogs, following us for reading tips and advice, and others like Mindful Teacher Rachel or Campbell Creates Readers on social media, or listening to podcasts like Sold a Story and Science of Reading.

You can even watch a great documentary called The Right to Read, which features the host of Sold a Story, Emily Hanford, and Dr. Kareem Weaver. Dr. Weaver is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of FULCRUM and is one of the most important people involved in establishing national change for our children struggling to read.

Right now, The Right to Read is showing across the country and is often followed by panel discussions. If you can attend one, you'll walk away incredibly informed (and most likely ready to fight). You can sign up for their mailing list to see if one is coming to an area near you (or just view their upcoming screenings). I would recommend starting with Sold a Story. It's a podcast you can listen to while you go about your day.

My warning is this though: prepare to be horrified. The things Emily Hanford shares are so important, but they are hard to hear. The reality is though that as many of us as possible need to hear them.

These resources are also all things that you can share with teachers, and most imporantly, administrators and board members of your schools. Remember, public or private, change happens from the top down! Your teachers may have all the knowledge in the world about how to improve acaemic performance and the best intentions, but the materials they use for teaching are given to them and mandadred by the state and district. They do not always have total control over what curricula and strategies are being used in their classroom.

2. Ask Questions to Understand the Process for Choosing Curricula

Ask to meet with your student's teacher or school administration so that you can learn about their reading and spelling curriculum. Almost every teacher I know wants to do right by their students, but they often have their hands tied when it comes to the curriculum their school provides.

But let's remember this: If this conversation is not approached delicately, it can be easy to have a teacher feel like their turf is being stepped on. If you have a teacher who responds in a way that tells us they may be feeling attacked, it could be because they're being confronted with a scary thought: What if what I've been doing to 'help' my students may not have been helping at all? This is why it's sometimes easier to meet with the administration. It feels easier to ask them tougher questions and less like a personal interrogation of a teacher.

Once you've learned about your child's specific curriculum, you can reach out directly to the school district. Let them know that there's a group of parents who would like to meet so that they can express their collective thoughts and concerns regarding your school's curriculum. If you arrive with a group of parents who are kind and respectful (but willing to be slightly noisy should the need occur), it's a good first step toward change.

What's important to remember is this:

Teachers and school administration are following the district's orders. If we want to truly influence change, it has to happen at the district level. (This involves funding, which will be a future blog post because it can be complex.)

Common Concerns Parents Have:

Typically, parents express various types of concerns around curricula. Some common concerns may include: outdated materials, lack of life skills or critical thinking, cultural or value misalignment, too much testing, and not enough creativity.

Before making assumptions about your school’s curricula, be sure to learn about their programs and materials they are using. It is also important to understand that buying a new curricula for an entire school or district is a HUGE expense. With the current state of education, it is rare to find a school or district that can afford to invest in a shiny, new curricula for all of it’s students. Additionally, there is a certain amount of trainig that is required for teachers to understand how to effectively implement the new curricula - so this is not always the best solution.

Talking with experts in the field (like LD Expert) can help you propose suggestions to schools and districts that can make major changes in academic performance without requiring the school to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars.

3. Get Involved

Participate in parent-teacher associations. As parents, especially when you're within a group, you have a very loud voice when it comes to shaping your child's education. When you're actively involved, but again kind and respectful, it can create a community that can truly support teachers making these large changes we're asking of them. It's not easy to overhaul and change curriculums, and it ultimately becomes the teachers doing the work and training, so they need to be lovingly supported.

Another way to get involved is to vote during school board elections. The voting should, of course, be done after you've learned about the candidates. Ask to speak with them so that you can learn about their position on school reading and writing curricula (and funding, which we will cover soon). Remember, you are voting them in, and their job is to represent you. If you have your pod of parents all attend a meeting to learn about them, you can absolutely begin to shape change.

You also will want to follow along and keep your eye on any local policy or legislative changes that may be occurring. Attend meetings where this will be discussed and make your voice heard here, too. Keeping your eye on upcoming tax levies also matters deeply (more on this again soon!).

4. Working With, Not Against Educators

When it comes to the Science of Reading - and anything, really - we want our teachers to be well-trained and well-informed. This takes time and costs money. When we are asking our teachers to walk away from these harmful curricula that have been used for far too long, it can feel like we're asking them to begin teaching a completely foreign subject. They must be offered training and, whenever possible, become certified in the program they will be providing.

This isn't their fault -- our ecurriculaducation system also failed to provide them with this information. Districts are then perpetuating the harm when they continue to use curriculums that we know are dangerous.

Learn about ways that you can support your teachers while they go through all this extra work and training. And remember, even if we are demanding it of the districts, the teachers are the ones in the trenches.